


Ben Sees Rey in One of Padme's Old Dresses

by how_do_i_turn_this_thing_off



Category: Star Wars Episode VIII: The Last Jedi, Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: F/M, One Shot, One-Shot, Oneshot, Tumblr, prompt
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-20
Updated: 2018-01-20
Packaged: 2019-03-07 05:12:16
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,191
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13427511
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/how_do_i_turn_this_thing_off/pseuds/how_do_i_turn_this_thing_off
Summary: From this prompt by @reyloisrealpeople on tumblr:Can someone please write a reylo fic where Leia gives Rey a few of Padme’s dresses and while Rey is in Padme’s ombré lake dress looking at herself in the mirror, alone in her room, the force bond opens and Ben/Kylo sees her in it. PLEEEEEASE!! I need the angst! I need the sexual tension. Give it to me!First published on tumblr @how-do-i-turn-this-thing-off





	Ben Sees Rey in One of Padme's Old Dresses

   Rey had seen a lot of things since Jakku but she’d never seen dresses like this.  Some were all geometric angles and huge- like, HUGE, huge- some were softer and looser, some in bright colors, some in dark colors.  She didn’t even know enough about clothing to really know what she was looking at, but the way Leia took them out and smoothed her hands along the fabric made it obvious they were very special.

   “These were my mother’s,” Leia said in a fond, reflective tone, holding one up to the light.  “Luckily she was pretty close to your size.  I’m afraid they might be a little dated but these flyboys won’t know the difference, and you’ll look absolutely beautiful either way.”

   “They’re very… they’re pretty,” Rey said lamely but with a smile, afraid Leia would hand her one of the big and bulky ones. “I just don’t know if I’m very good at wearing dresses.  I was going to just wear my normal clothes–.”

   “One of the things you’ll learn about being a rebel is that sometimes it’s just as important to celebrate the little victories as it is to buckle down for the next long haul,” Leia insisted, pulling a few of the lighter dresses from the pile.  “I remember some of the best parties of my life were in hardscrabble circumstances, like this one.  Every girl should get to be young and glamorous for at least one night.  Now, what do you think is your color?”

   “I don’t know,” Rey admitted.  Leia held up a deep red dress, a pale pink one, a dress that looked like feathers, a dress that looked like golden lace.  “Maybe something bright?”

   “Ah yes.  Of course, because you’re so bright yourself,” Leia said, giving her a small pat on the cheek before putting the other dresses down and going back to the pile.  “I should have guessed you’d want something colorful anyway, for your very first party dress!  I would have put myself in sequins at my first party, if I’d thought my father was going to let me get away with it.  Here, you should try on this one.”  The new dress she held up wasn’t like any of the others and Rey found herself staring, and staring, and staring, unable to stop.  It looked like a dress made out of a sunset, in some kind of light, floaty material she had no name for, all yellows and pinks and purples, sweeping the floor gracefully even when it wasn’t being worn.

   “It’s… I don’t know what to say,” she murmured, reaching out to touch it and then pulling back her hand, afraid she’d ruin it somehow.  This was a dress for a Princess, like Leia, not for a desert scavenger.  She’d probably look ridiculous in it.  “It’s perfect,” she said anyway, swallowing the lump in her throat.

   “It’s perfect for you,” Leia said, leaning forward and pushing it into Rey’s arms before Rey could reasonably say no.  “Try it on to make sure it fits and I’ll go dig out the hair things that go with it.  It’s a very specific style but I think we can pull it off, with a little luck.  And dont’ make a fuss about this,” she added when she saw Rey open her mouth to protest.  “I don’t know who’s going to wear it but you, and anyway, tonight’s as good a night as any to knock him dead.”

   “Who?” Rey asked, confused.

   “Whoever you like, dear,” Leia said enigmatically, smiling an encouraging smile before leaving the room.  Rey hesitated, looking down at the dress.  This was ridiculous but she couldn’t help smiling widely, couldn’t help running her hand over the colors as the ran into each other in the skirt.  Maybe she could just try it on for a moment.  She didn’t have to take it, she could just try it on to see what it looked like.  She hurried to change, peeling off her usual sand-toned and hard-wearing sparring clothes and boots then carefully, ever-so-gently stepping into the dress and pulling it up over her shoulders.  It fastened around the neck but it took her a moment to get the complicated little clasp to halfway catch.  When she did she turned around and caught a glimpse of herself in the mirror that made her gasp, just a little, immediately followed by a breathy, embarrassed laugh.

   She looked– well, she didn’t know how to say how she looked. Beautiful, maybe, which was a word she’d never used for herself before.  There was a strange swelling sensation where her heart was, something tight and wonderful that made her grin so big her cheeks almost hurt.  She looked like the pictures she’d seen of Leia when she was younger, like a real-life sunset princess.

   “Rey?” a familiar voice said behind her, and all too late Rey recognized the chill she’d felt in the air, the frisson in the Force that announced the arrival of an unwelcome spectator.  She turned around too quickly, catching her foot on the hem and feeling the tug across the fabric undo the loose neck clasp.  She barely caught the front of the dress in time.

   “Can’t you see I’m busy?” she snarled in what she thought was an admirably intimidating tone, considering she’d only been a moment from being half-naked in front of BEN SOLO, of all people.

   “What- are you-?” he tried to ask, looking at her then not looking at her, almost as if he was afraid to, then looking back, his cheeks flushed but his jaw set stubbornly.  “I mean, it’s not my fault I’m seeing you.  You could try and resist the link, if you wanted.”

   “We both know that won’t work,” she sighed, wishing she could change, wishing she could just make the dress disappear and him along with it.  “You could try to leave.”

   “Why?”

   “Because– because I don’t want you here!”

   “Why?” he asked again, his voice dispassionate but his expression flaring with wary curiosity.  “Did you think I’d make fun of you?”

   “I don’t care what you do,” she managed to say as she broke eye contact with him, severely taken aback.  It had never occurred to her that that might be something she needed to be afraid of but she suddenly realized how he must see her, this dirty desert orphan playing dress-up with a queen’s old clothes.  She’d been too infatuated with her pretty, pretty reflection to think.

   “I wouldn’t,” Ben said quickly.  “I mean, not that there’s any need to.  It doesn’t even- you look, you look fine, you know.”

   “Can you go now?” she asked, still not looking him in the eye as she tried to at least redo the clasp on the neck thingy.  It was impossible with only one hand to work with while the other hand held up the front, but she’d be damned if she was going to risk using two.  One slip of her fingers and– well, she’d have to run away to Luke’s hermit island for a decade at least.

   “I didn’t mean to offend you,” Ben said in that patient tone he used with her when he thought she was being dramatic.  “Here, I can get that.”

   “No!  No,” Rey said, trying to back away from him, but the dress was too long for her to move around in it properly. Full-length skirts were turning out to be a much more unwieldy enterprise than she’d bargained for.  Ben hesitated, hands still out, looking unimpressed.

   “Rey, just let me get it,” he sighed.

   “I’ll do it myself.”

   “Will you?” he challenged, stepping forward again.  She didn’t try to back away again, afraid she really would fall over this time, and a moment later his hands were hovering just over her neck, light as a breeze, not fully realized yet.  They both had to intend the contact for the Force bond to work properly and she tried to relax a little, tossing her head in frustration.

   “Alright, fine,” she said, uncharitably, turning her back to him to give him better access.  His fingers really did brush her skin now and he was here, here in the room with her, his large hands carefully doing up the intricate clasp with surprising skill.  “Thank you,” she said the moment he was done, still facing away from him.

   “Why are you wearing this?” he asked, hands fluttering over her shoulders.

   “Where are you now?” she shot back.

   “It’s my grandmother’s, isn’t it?”

   “Yes.”

   “Well it… I mean, it suits you.”  She turned to look at him in surprise and saw something she rarely ever saw in his expression these days: hesitation.  That and something else, something about the way he was looking at her, really looking at her, that she didn’t want to consider too closely.  “You look beautiful, is what I mean.”

   His sincerity echoed through their bond and she felt herself flush, just a little but enough that she was sure he could see it. “Ben…” she said hesitantly, trying to take his hands.  Her fingers almost went right through his but at the last moment he hesitated himself and then she felt him allow it.  “Where are you?”

   “Too far away from you, desert girl.”

   “Are you… how are you?”

   “How am I?  Still alone, just like you.”

   “Not alone,” she reminded him.

   “If I’m not with you I’m alone,” he insisted, staring down at her in a way that made her wish, suddenly, dangerously, that she was wherever he was.  “I wish you would come to me.”

   “I’ve tried that before.”

   “Come, and stay,” he said, drawing her hands to him, pressing them to his chest.  He could manage it with just one hand, his hands were so much larger then hers.  He trailed his free hand across her waist, and where her dress was open in the back she felt his fingertips against her bare skin.  “I need you, Rey.  You need me.  We should be together,” he insisted again, his tone a little harsher, both his hands tightening on her as he stared her down. “Why do you have to keep pretending that this is what you want?!”

   “This IS what I want!” she protested.

   “Away from me?” he asked, softly again, his voice almost mournful as his bare fingers tightened on her bare back.  “Rey. Please.”

   “You know I won’t,” she murmured, leaning towards him no matter how sternly she reminded herself she shouldn’t.  Over his shoulder she caught a glimpse of them in the mirror, a sunset shrouded in the arms of a pitch-black night.

   “You will, someday,” he said, looking her over.  “Not today, maybe, but you will.”  His gaze seemed to catch on each different color, drinking her in, and she felt herself drawing him to her, not physically but in the Force, in their bond, trying to bring him here with her.

   “It’s not going to work, Rey,” he said knowingly, looking at her without a trace of the smile she could almost swear she’d glimpsed a moment before.  “You have to come to me.  You know you do.  Bring the dress,” he added, sweeping his gaze downwards again.  “We can always dye it.”

   “Never,” she protested.  A sound outside the door made them both look up, and under her hands she could almost feel him dissolve.  He looked back at her, his eyes as deep as an ocean, full of longing, and regret.  “Ben–,” she pleaded in a whisper, trying to wrap the Force around him, trying to keep him with her, but he dropped her hands and was gone.

   “Oh, you look absolutely lovely!” Leia said, opening the door and spotting her.  Rey turned away hastily, trying to pretend she was looking in the mirror, fighting back tears as Leia chattered about the hair ornaments she’d found, laying them on a bench behind her.  Why did Ben have to come today, and turn this moment sad, and make Rey miss him, and want him, all over again?  It wasn’t fair! She’d gone to him on Snoke’s own ship, into the proverbial belly of the beast, just for the chance that he might choose her, but he’d never once even considered entering a rebel base unless it was to kill everyone inside it.  He insisted she surrender to him in everything, and left her feeling empty and left behind, again, even though she’d been the one to leave him.

   “Oh Rey, what’s wrong?” Leia finally asked, looking up. “I can feel your unhappiness from here.”

   “Nothing.  It’s nothing,” Rey insisted, making herself smile again.  The beautiful sunset dress that Ben had fastened for her shone in the light from outside, and she allowed herself to remember for a brief moment that happy smile she had almost, almost seen when he’d been looking at her in it.  “I just can’t remember ever feeling so beautiful.”

   “Careful at the party tonight,” Leia warned, her own smile back.  “It’ll be hard to decide which one to dance with first, Finn or Poe.”

   “Yes,” Rey agreed, imagining someone completely different who wasn’t going to be there.  “It’ll be hard.”

**Author's Note:**

> So I've been publishing some Reylo stuff on tumblr (@how-do-i-turn-this-thing-off) since I saw 'The Last Jedi' and I've received requests to post it here as well! Nice to have so many people who really love it and support my first forays into one-shots and fan fiction and stuff-- if you did indeed follow me over from tumblr I am deeply humbled and hope you continue to love what I write *blushes incredibly deeply*
> 
> I'll move all my tumblr-published stories here eventually but it's going to be pretty much as I have time to so I won't promise any kind of regularity. If you really, really liked this and you don't want to wait feel free to go devour all of it now :)


End file.
